


Same As Always

by JediMara77



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
Genre: Gen, Speculation, The Force Awakens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-25
Updated: 2015-05-25
Packaged: 2018-04-01 06:38:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4009660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JediMara77/pseuds/JediMara77
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A wild speculation fic based on the first The Force Awakens teaser trailer, a few rumors, and all my SWEU fan hopes and dreams. (This was written before John Boyega confirmed Finn is a stormtrooper and not in a disguise.) I do not follow spoilers or rumors so any similarities between this fic and the actual movie are purely coincidental.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Same As Always

Rey Solo had only been on Tatooine for a week, but she'd already seen enough of it to last a lifetime.   
  
The first day had been quiet.  _Too_  quiet, and she knew it was too good to be true. She spent the second day gathering intel and supplies, and avoiding some of the more unscrupulous characters Uncle Luke had warned her about. During the remainder of the week she visited the old Lars and Kenobi homesteads, taking care to avoid Jawas and Tusken Raiders along the way. She'd hoped she might feel a stronger connection to the Force on Tatooine, but it felt like it always had--muddied and clouded. She'd asked her mother and Uncle Luke what that meant, but they didn't have an answer for her. They never did.   
  
The Empire arrived on the seventh day, right on schedule, as she was leaving the settlement. She watched the ship arrive through her macrobinoculars, then left her perch on the cliff and took off on her speeder to go find the stash.   
  
#   
  
Tatooine. His father's homeworld. Finn Skywalker had always thought he'd one day come here, but had always assumed it'd be under different circumstances--like a family vacation mandated by his mother or Aunt Leia. He never thought he'd arrive on an Imperial transport, or be wearing stormtrooper gear.   
  
His father and Uncle Had had once worn those uniforms as part of a disguise. His mother had once  _been_  an Imperial. But playing the part was more than enough for Finn. He couldn't get wait to get out of there.   
  
It'd been easier than he expected to jump ship, and then it was a matter of not dying during the crash. Sweat pooled on his face as he crawled out of the escape pod and he yanked off his helmet, eager to catch his breath. Stumbling around, he took in his surroundings. He was right on target, and right on schedule. His getaway ship should be arriving any moment now. So why did he feel so nervous?   
  
His father would tell him to focus on the here and now. His mother would tell him that Jades didn't get nervous, they made other people nervous. Finn himself didn't have any quippy mottos yet, other than "don't get dead".   
  
His parents were right, though; so far everything had gone according to plan, and he'd gotten more information than they could have predicted. Which meant it was the perfect time for things to go horribly wrong. Finn didn't have access to the Force like his parents did, but as he took off across the dunes, he inhaled deeply and tried to calm himself. It helped a bit.  
  
Seeing a familiar ship fly across the dunes would help even more.   
  
#   
  
The ship was right where Rey left it. And sitting at the controls was Luke Skywalker.  
  
She threw him a glare as she stalked inside the cockpit, BB-8 doing her best to keep up with her. "I'm flying, Uncle Luke."  
  
"I know," he said, rising from the seat and tucking his hands inside his cloak. "I was just keeping the chair warm for you."  
  
"Sure you were--"  
  
"We better get going," Luke said, glancing out the viewport. He had that faraway look in his eyes he always got when things were about to go south.   
  
Rey sat down and finished starting up the  _Millennium Falcon_. "Everything okay?"  
  
"What do you think?"  
  
She suppressed a groan. He was always doing this sort of thing to her--his way of compensating for not being able to train Finn in the ways of the Force, she supposed. "Judging by the look on your face, I'm going to say no."  
  
"Astoundingly astute, as usual," he said. He was already on his way to the gun turrets. "I think the Empire has been alerted to the fact they're short one stormtrooper."  
  
Despite the situation, Rey's lip quirked. Luke probably hadn't even realized he'd made a short joke about his own son--and he was one to talk. "All right. One round of fancy flying, coming right up."  
  
"Not too fancy. Your father's still angry at me for taking you on this mission in the first place."  
  
"Dad can get over it." She lifted the  _Falcon_  off the ground and grinned. Force how she loved this bucket of bolts. Then she grimaced at an all-too-familiar sight in the distance.  
  
"TIEs, dead ahead! Get to the guns!" she shouted...but Luke was already gone. BB-8 chirped at her. "Yeah, whatever--get in the back!"   
  
The droid zoomed away, adequately chagrined.   
  
#   
  
 _Why didn't Mom ever teach me to run in sand?_ Finn thought as he ran across the dunes. He felt ridiculous, stumbling around like a drunkard.   
  
He groaned as his ankle twisted underneath him for the third time. He knew how to use every vibroblade on the black market but running in sand was going to be his downfall. It figured. He wondered what they'd put in his obituary:  _Finn Skywalker, adopted son to Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, died three days ago on Tatooine after faceplanting in a sand dune and being eaten by womprats. If only he'd had the Force._  
  
A familiar noise broke his morose thoughts, and he finally allowed himself to stop moving. A second later the  _Millennium Falcon_  roared over the horizon, and he nearly let out a whoop. Then he saw the reason the  _Falcon_  was flying so fast--TIEs, hot in pursuit--and he groaned. Of course the Empire would notice they were missing a stormtrooper, even a terrible one. His dad had told him over and over what to do if someone recognized him on the Star Destroyer, but not what to do if he got caught afterwards. His dad had assured him he would be on the getaway ship before the Imperials started their pursuit. Of course this would be one of the rare moments when Luke Skywalker was wrong.   
  
"I hope Uncle Han's flying that ship," Finn muttered to himself. He had no idea who was supposed to be picking him up; he'd been kept out of the loop on all the other plans "just in case". He'd really been hoping it'd be the  _Jade's Fire_ , but he should have known his mother would stay far away from Imperial business.   
  
The freighter zoomed overhead and set down a few meters behind him. Without waiting for the ramp to descend, he sprinted across the sand as fast as he could.   
  
#   
  
"Argh!" Rey shouted as a TIE's laser nearly blasted the hull. "What are you doing back there?" she shouted into her headset. "Taking a nap?"   
  
"Respect your elders," Luke said calmly. Another TIE came in, and before Rey could flinch the  _Falcon_ 's guns swatted it away. "I know what I'm doing."  
  
"Uh-huh," Rey said, but she wasn't relieved. There were still more TIEs out there, and they were sitting ducks until her cousin finished his part of the deal--  
  
"I'm in!" she heard Finn shout.   
  
She had the  _Falcon_  off the ground before bringing the ramp up. BB-8 could take care of that. A few seconds later, while she was gritting her teeth and zooming away from the TIEs, Finn barged into the cockpit.   
  
"Oh, it's you."   
  
She could hear the disdain in his voice and greeted him with a rude gesture. "It's good to see you, too," she said. "Now sit down and strap in. I wouldn't want you to get hurt."   
  
Before Finn could reply, a laser blast rocked the  _Falcon_. She cursed and checked the deflector shields. "Belay that--you better get to the lower gun!"   
  
"Yeah, sure," Finn said, leaping towards the back of the cockpit as gracefully as possible in the cumbersome stormtrooper gear. "Wait, who's in the upper gun?"   
  
"Who do you think?" Rey said sarcastically.   
  
#   
  
Finn didn't have to ask for clarification. He raced through the  _Falcon_ , ignoring BB-8's shrill cries that she wasn't ready battle ready. He glanced up at the upper gun as he climbed down the ladder, and could see his father spinning around, firing for all he was worth with a serene expression hiding behind a thick, graying beard that made him look like a crazy old hermit. Finn paused for a moment, taking it all in.  _So that's what Dad's been up to while I was undercover._ Finn wondered if the awful beard was a precautionary measure or just part of a post-midlife crisis.   
  
He settled into the chair and donned the headset, snickering as he imagined how his mother must've reacted to that development. "Hey, Dad."  
  
"Hey, son," Luke said. "Glad you're okay."  
  
"Me, too. You could have told me you were going to be here."   
  
"No, I couldn't," Luke said. "I explained the need for secrecy plenty of times."  
  
Finn grumbled to himself. He still didn't like the idea of being the one to put his neck on the line while everyone else had laid low, but he knew there wasn't much of a choice. Rey was too easily recognized, even while in disguise and using an alias. While the name Finn Skywalker was known throughout the galaxy, most people, especially in the Empire, didn't know exactly what he looked like. Going into semi-exile and keeping the knowledge of your son's adoption a secret went a long way towards keeping a kid out of the limelight. Everyone always assumed that one red-headed Jedi was actually Luke and Mara Jade's son, and his parents used that assumption to their advantage.   
  
And, of course, Kylo hadn't been  _his_  brother. Kylo might be full of himself, thinking he could handle dark side secrets better than his own grandfather, but he'd surely be able to tell if his own sister was snooping around for intel on him.   
  
Finn shrugged off those thoughts and concentrated on shooting. He had a job to do. The mission had been a pain, but it was almost over. He couldn't wait to get off this dustball and tell his dad everything he'd learned.  
  
#   
  
Luke had been happy to play the innocent bystander along for the ride, but now things were getting too heated for his liking. Between the Imperial pursuit and the disturbance in the Force he'd felt several days ago, he was eager to leave his childhood home.  
  
"Rey, watch your six," he warned. The shots were getting too close, and while he trusted Rey and Finn with his life, he'd shot the majority of the TIEs off their backs so far. They couldn't keep up at this pace, especially with those starfighters coming directly at them.   
  
Rey, as usual, wasn't in the mood for a rebuke. "I've been flying this ship since I was 10," she snapped into the headset. "I know what I'm doing."  
  
"I'm sure you do," he said in his most reasonable voice. "I'm also sure flying directly into a formation of TIE fighters isn't the smartest course of action."  
  
"Do you want to come up here and fly this thing?" Rey shouted.  
  
Luke smirked to himself. "Oh, no. I'm not allowed to fly the  _Falcon_  anymore. Not after Myrkr."  
  
"What happened on Myrkr?"   
  
"Good luck getting that story out of him," Finn cut in. "He and Mom are notoriously mum on that one. Even Karrde won't tell me."   
  
"Karrde won't tell anyone anything without proper compensation--"  
  
"As great as this little family reunion is, let's concentrate on flying, okay?" Luke interrupted.   
  
The kids grunted at him but did as told, and as the  _Falcon_  began to soar into the atmosphere Luke finally started to feel as calm as he forced himself to look. He'd become very good at projecting a sense of inner peace since becoming a father and an uncle, not to mention a Jedi Master. A life in so-called exile had helped at that--not to mention having friends in almost every branch of the New Republic and even more in the fringe. But keeping calm hadn't been on his list of things to do since Kylo had left.   
  
Kylo Ren...just thinking the name churned Luke's stomach. It didn't matter what the boy decided to call himself now. Other people thought differently, but as far as Luke was concerned Kylo would never stop being a Solo and a Skywalker. It was Luke's own damn fault Kylo had left. He'd done his best to protect the boy, but perhaps Lumiya had been telling the truth during that fateful confrontation. Perhaps sheltering the children had done more harm than good. Perhaps it was impossible to train them the way they should have been, the way they would have been in the Old Republic. And he'd been so scared of their potential in the Force...  
  
 _Anger, fear, aggression, the dark side are they... Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny..._  
  
Luke shook his head and clenched his hands around the gun. He didn't believe Yoda's warnings any more now than he did when he was 22. Anakin had been able to come back to the light, and so would Kylo-- _if_  the information Finn had gotten proved accurate. Soon he'd be rendezvousing with Mara and Karrde, and then he'd call in that long overdue favor from Wedge and Poe. They would meet up with Leia and Han, find Kylo, and bring him back home.   
  
They had a plan. It couldn't fail.  
  
He didn't know how he would live with himself if it did.


End file.
